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NY Daily News, Mike Lupica on Giants

raleigh-panther

By raleigh-panther,
in Carolina Panthers

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raleigh-panther Grand Master

raleigh-panther

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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/2008/12/15/2008-12-15_aching_giants_must_put_hurt_on_opponents.html

Aching Giants must put hurt on opponents

Tuesday, December 16th 2008, 2:41 PM

AP

Eli Manning finds out against Cowboys that Super Bowl champion Giants are facing crunch time.

Cowboys conquer chaos, control own fate

You can start here with the Giants, or at least what the Giants have become lately: If they lose to the Panthers at home Sunday night that makes it three losses in a row. And you know how many teams have lost three in a row in December and then gone on to win the Super Bowl? None, that's how many.

The Giants need to get their groove back now, play with the sense of "urgency" the great Justin Tuck talked about Monday. The Giants need to look like the best team in the league again on Sunday night, if they can do that without Plaxico Burress and - perhaps - without Brandon Jacobs. And maybe without their offensive right tackle, Kareem McKenzie, too. Kevin Gilbride, the offensive coordinator, got a lot of love last season. Now Gilbride needs to come up with a new plan, one that works around the team he has, not the one he used to have.

We heard that it was all right that the Giants lost to the Eagles because the Eagles were such a desperate team. And a lot of smart guys were picking the Cowboys on Sunday night because everybody knows how desperate the Cowboys are. Maybe it's time the Giants started playing with a little more desperation, so it doesn't look as if the road loss that mattered most this season was the one at the Latin Quarter.

"I think they can win without Burress," one NFL coach said Monday. "But I don't see how they can win without Jacobs."

Plaxico Burress is gone, maybe forever. They didn't have Jacobs against the Cowboys, and it isn't sure they'll have him against the Panthers. McKenzie left the Cowboys game with a back injury and the Giants won't know about him until later in the week. This is no longer the team we saw win it all in Arizona. Isn't the team we were seeing a month ago, one that was going to roll through everybody on its way to Tampa.

Tom Coughlin praised his defense when it was over Sunday night and the Cowboys had won, 20-8. But if you watched the game you know that when the Cowboys needed to run the ball at the end, they did whatever they wanted. The week before, the Giants did nothing to stop Brian Westbrook. And Eli Manning got sacked eight times at Texas Stadium. And the Giants didn't score a touchdown, one week after the only one they got on offense came against the Eagles at garbage time.

Even banged up, they should be the best team in their conference. Even banged up, they should be able to beat the Panthers at home.

But what if they don't?

What if they do make it three straight losses in a row? Are they any sure thing to win the last game of the regular season against the Vikings, a team they could end up playing again in January? If Westbrook can look like Jim Brown against the Giants, what happens with Adrian Peterson the Sunday after next?

Once the Jets started to look bad after getting to 8-3, people started talking about them as if they could turn into the football Mets. The defending champs, though, they're supposed to be a different story, whether they're in the playoffs or not.

"We're running out of games here," Coughlin said Monday.

This isn't the way this regular season was supposed to end, not the way his team had played for almost a full calendar year. Starting with the first game of the playoffs last season, against the Bucs, the Giants ripped off a 15-1 season. They went 4-0 in the playoffs and then started out this season 11-1, and that included the first game they played after Burress thought he was Wyatt Earp. Now come these two losses. They stayed close but had no offense in either one. And Sunday night they didn't even have an offensive line, which is supposed to be as big a weapon as there is in their sport right now.

So now everybody is going to stack the line against them, whether Jacobs is in with Eli or not. So there is no wide receiver the other team has to worry about double-teaming. And the cover guys, both in the secondary and at linebacker, don't cover nearly well enough in big moments, starting with Antonio Pierce.

The Giants were the coolest team in sports this year, as cool as the Celtics, beating you all ways and with class. They beat you at quarterback, they beat you on both lines, they made the plays when they had to and didn't let the other guys do that. But there was Westbrook running away from them the Sunday before last and there was Tashard Choice doing that Sunday night. There are plenty of reasons why they don't look anything like themselves the last two Sundays.

Sure they have been hit. And if you don't hear any crying from the rest of the sport it's because there isn't any. The Giants right now are two games better than the Patriots, the team they beat in Arizona to win it all. If the Giants lose on Sunday and the Patriots win, the Giants are 11-4 and the Patriots are 10-5 and all the Patriots lost this year, about 15 minutes into the season, was Tom Brady.

If somebody had told you even three weeks ago, before Burress and Pierce went out for their night of fun, that the NFC Championship Game would be played anywhere except Giants Stadium, we all would have laughed. Nobody is laughing anymore. I still think the Giants are the best team in the whole league, even without Burress. They just need to play that way now. They're still the champs, two losses doesn't change that. But the real defense of their title starts now.

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mountainpantherfan Newbie

mountainpantherfan

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Good article. The only thing I would have added was how this is the MO for the Giants under Coughlin minus last year. Almost every season they started strong and then faded the second half. Sometimes they missed the playoffs, sometimes they limbed in and got beat like in 2005 agasint the Panthers.

This is the reason why the Giants losing last week didn't worry me. History tells us that once the Giants start to slid, they don't stop.

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MadHatter Rookie

MadHatter

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I am going to love watching the media and NYC implode when we go into their house, bitch splap their sorry asses, kick their dogs, and put a beatdown on their beloved Giants.

Fact of the matter is this....Giants will lose Sunday. However, I think they will lose again the next week in Minnesota.

Giants will get their home playoff game....too bad they will be hosting a Wildcard game.

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MadHatter Rookie

MadHatter

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their done? :eek:

Another redneck that never finished the second grade?

We might be rednecks....but at least we are not Yankee Trash.

Come back Monday for your obligatory bitch slapping....after we roll your Giants on Sunday night.

While you are at it...bring your girlfriend. I have some laundry that needs taking care of.

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BigBlue Newbie

BigBlue

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We might be rednecks....but at least we are not Yankee Trash.

Come back Monday for your obligatory bitch slapping....after we roll your Giants on Sunday night.

While you are at it...bring your girlfriend. I have some laundry that needs taking care of.

Too funny...

We? Do you play for the panthers?

Exactly...

Glad I could help...

Too easy...

Next.

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MadHatter Rookie

MadHatter

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Too funny...

We? Do you play for the panthers?

Exactly...

Glad I could help...

Too easy...

Next.

Wow...nice to see that shitty NY education is serving you well. You can't even use a complete sentence.

Head back to the ghetto there homeboy. And tell your wife to have my dinner ready by 6PM....she knows what will happen if she makes me wait.

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BigBlue Newbie

BigBlue

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Wow...nice to see that sh*tty NY education is serving you well. You can't even use a complete sentence.

Head back to the ghetto there homeboy. And tell your wife to have my dinner ready by 6PM....she knows what will happen if she makes me wait.

All Ivy baby...

PS: I live in NJ.

Glad I could help...

Please try & keep up...

Too easy...

Next.

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